The task of accelerating intra- African trade and boosting Africa’s trading position in the global market has come into force on 30 May 2019 and the market would be launched on 7 July 2019. This was indicated in the African Union’s statement.
The African Union, in its Agenda 2063 has set a vision of creating a single continental market. So far, 52 out of the 55 African Union member states have appended their signatures to the establishment of the African Countries’ Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Thus, this single market can be said the biggest in the global economy compared to the others market zones such as; the Eurozone in terms of members countries, population size and political space.
The vision of the continental single market is to amplify Africa’s common voice and widen policy space in global trade negotiations. It as well aims at supporting the Union’s move.
However, economists stated that the way towards a single market has both strong and weak sides unless the economic policies of member states is competitive in order to help the production of standard goods and services and avoiding total dependency at their first step.
The Continental market zone is expected to formalize the illegal border trades mostly (70 % of it ) conducted by women. And this will change the life of these segments of the society, according to a study.
It is good to begin it, however, the single market requires efficient bureaucracy to protect over charging and business malpractices and thereby ensure accountability and common standards, says Getachew Minas an economic expert in Addis Ababa, the Political Capital of the continent.
He also warns member states that countries should be alert not to be dumping grounds of goods and services produced in the advanced and relatively greater economies in Africa.
For countries like Ethiopia, which can be named as dry ports, the single continental market has many to contribute through easing accessibility to the sea ports, says economist Fassil Tadese.
“Furthermore, the single market platform have also immense contributions to the African states pertaining to accelerating their economic and political policies in order to cope up with the countries of big economies ( the big seven, big-20 blocks and other emerging economies) in the global market.”
Africans are making good efforts every so often. They are heading in the right direction at this moment in time. I do be lieve, Africans will see one of the important agreements- Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) which connects African market as a single market. As a matter of fact, Ethiopia and Senegal have already signed and rectified the CFTA. In actual fact, it will come into effect in a very few weeks’ time. I would say, this is a very important move, Senegalese Ambassador to Ethiopia and the African Union tells The Ethiopian Herald in an exclusive interview.
In the same vein, the continental block is a greater platform for the continental block to pave the way to the creation of the United States of Africa, according to Fasil.
Intra-Africa investment, intellectual property issues, anti-competitive challenges, regional value chain process, trade surges, recognition of licenses, standardization of goods and services should be discussed thoroughly at the African heads of states level, Getachew states.
There must also be protection mechanism of infant companies. There is also a call for some sort of tariff and non-tariff mechanisms to encourage local productivity.Asked his Take on the issue the economist Teklebirhan Gebremicahel said the aspiration of forming a single African common market is by its very nature a long-term venture but should be fully embraced by all and sundry.
China, the Us, India and the EU are great global economic power partly because of their size and the extent of their internal markets. The pooling of resources for infrastructure development, research and development and for collective security is of vital importance. There are definitely going to be immense challenges along the way towards building a grand single market on a continental scale. Similarity of production, poor infrastructure and undeveloped infra-African ? saymeats systems are likely to pose almost insurmountable difficulties, but that is how all grand schemes of this scale are started and constituted.
He added on the positive side oil-producing African countries may benefit from selling their petroleum to neighboring African states on compatible global terms while those importing the oil may enjoy even greater advantages from saving on transport costs.
He wrapped up with Intra-African payments systems which partly are local currencies could also help in saving scarce foreign exchange use. Above all, a single market may be instrumental in realizing the advantage of economies of scale in production as well as in bulk purchase. At any note, a long journey is began with a single step and so the idea of a single African-market is well worth trying if the success of the EU is anything to go by.
The agenda was to debate the creation of the Union Government that will lead to the formation of the United States of Africa as adopted by a 2006 study. The study proposed a single African military force, a single currency and a single passport for Africans, according to the pan-African narratives- Face2Face Africa.
“The heated debate in Accra failed to institute the Union Government but the heads of state agreed to accelerate political and economic integration, strengthen the organs and institutions of the AU and then set a time frame to establish a Union Government with the involvement of Africans and the diaspora.”
Since then, teams have been set up in 2007, 2008 and 2009 to review the recommendations and give the green light for the transformation of the African Union Commission into the African Union Authority to pave way for the Union Government, which will be led by a president, vice president and secretaries, it further states.
“All the teams have since deferred their assignments and the dream of a United States of Africa still lingers. However, a successful implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement will be a step in the right direction.”
The Ethiopian Herald, June 16/2019
